Dani pressed against the back corner of the house, both hands holding tight to her revolver. Slinking across the yard, she maneuvered past a small deck and had the front of the barn in sight when she heard a woman call out.
“Who the devil are you?”
The deputy trained her pistol on an old round woman. “I’m Deputy Dani Savage, ma’am. I have reason to believe there’s a young girl by the name of Sarah Campbell somewhere on this property.”
“You can’t be on my land. Who said you could do a thing like that?”
“Ma’am, please step off the porch.”
“You get off my land.”
“Ma’am, off the porch.”
The old woman huffed and stepped off the back porch, clearing away from the open door and revealing her wheelchair-bound husband holding a shotgun on Dani.
“Put down that devil weapon,” the woman said.
Dani aimed the gun at the old man. “Sir, put the gun down.”
“He ain’t doing nothing of the sort,” the old woman said. “That scatter gun has been blessed in the name of Jesus.”
“Sir, put the gun down now!”
Instead of complying he taunted the deputy with a drool-burdened smirk.
Before Dani could make a third and final request for the old man to put the gun down, a loud whack soared out of the doorway, and the old man lurched forward, awkwardly falling to the back deck. Bones appeared behind him, holding tightly to an iron skillet.
The old woman screamed. “Papa Paul!”
Dani, confused by the commotion, moved the gun back and forth from Bones to the old woman.
The old woman started toward her husband.
“Don’t move,” the deputy demanded.
“Papa Paul’s been struck down by a demon whore.”
“I got your demon whore, bitch,” Bones responded.
Dani turned her gun back on Bones. “Who are you?”
The skinny whore stumbled out the back door. “Where’s Step?”
“You know Step?”
The sound of a gunshot in the distance startled them all.